Israeli food

My friend Fran, who lives in Israel, has been kind enough to send me a box of foodie goodies, which I’m really excited about – spices, which are either unobtainable, or exorbitantly priced, over here – za’atar, baharat and hawaij.Vanilla pudding mix, which is used in a few of Carine Goren’s recipes, is not really available here in the UK, unless I order online, or buy the American ‘Jello’ brand in the little box, from places with fancy food halls such as Selfridges or House of Fraser.Fran also included some cute little disposable paper baking cases, some for cupcakes and some larger ones, suitable for making the chocolate pear puddings in Carine’s book. As soon as I can get my hot little hands on some tiny pears, I’ll be making these.

I had some kind of exuberant vision of making kibbe, a suitably Middle-Eastern dish, to kind of celebrate the arrival of my box of goodies, and as a virtual way of saying thank you to Fran for being so kind, but things didn’t work out quite as I’d planned…….

The kibbe are in the bin.

They were overwhelmingly greasy, crumbly and smelt heavily of lamb, which I hasten to add, I usually like the smell of.My husband took one bite, pulled a face, which looked like he’d just stepped on, or tasted something very unpleasant, put his fork and plate down and refused to eat any more.

Kibbe are supposed to be a dish of layered bulgar wheat mixed with lamb mince and pounded (or processed) to a paste, with added spices, layered with a filling of, again, lamb mince, fried with chopped onions, pine nuts and spices, covered with lots of butter, fried in lots of butter and baked until golden brown.

Baked kibbe

Crumbly kibbe

They sound delicious…I don’t really know where I went wrong….I should have realised when I was adding butter and more butter, with fatty lamb mince.

Well, as they say, you live and learn.I don’t think I’ll be in a hurry to make these again.

From Nadia Sawalha’s book ‘Stuffed vine leaves saved my life’.

Marks out of ten? 1.

Would I make them again? No, unless I found a very different recipe on personal recommendation!

Would I do anything differently? Can’t really answer my own question, as I’m not making them again.

….Is the title of a wonderful book which I received in the post this week. From my friend Francesca in Israel, it arrived carefully wrapped in cute cupcake paper, with a beautiful handwritten card telling me about some of the best recipes and tips.I really appreciate this act of kindness, this pursuit of someone else’s happiness. Thank you Fran.

The book is by Carine Goren, First published in 2006 in Hebrew, then in English in 2010, Carine is apparently the “Baking Guru of Israel” if one is to believe the blurb on the back of the book. It’s not hard to see why – Ms. Goren has some amazing recipes in there, recipes I am really drawn to, probably because of my Cypriot background, recipes that are homely, delicious and one the whole don’t look too complicated, though there is a section in the book called ‘Show off’ for those who, er, want to, er, show off!I can’t wait to try the two-toned chocolate spiral cheesecake in there and also the coffee cake which includes tahini and halva!

The first recipes I have tried however, are the ‘Heavenly rolls’ and the ‘Dreamy, creamy vanilla cupcakes’.The heavenly rolls are egg and sugar enriched little, white, croissant-shaped rolls. Delicious and, yes, Heavenly!

Just waiting to be punched down!

Cut into ‘pizza slices’ and roll from the outside in.

Rich, sweet and tender!

I made the vanilla cupcakes as a surprise on my daughter’s birthday, they looked really pretty, with tiny gold and silver sprinkles and silver birthday candles, all lit up, and more importantly, I think I’ve found ‘THE’ cupcake recipe, you know, the one we’ve all been looking for?

Pretty birthday cupcakes

Ready for lighting

Sweet, tender crumbed, but substantial- and I don’t mean that in a stodgy way, but a good way! I could probably have got 14 cupcakes, not 12, from the mixture. They’re not flimsy little skinny Minnie cupcakes, but big, buxom, blondes!Notice one huge difference between mine and the ones in the book? Yes, my frosting….Note: Never, ever, try making a thick frosting using vanilla candy melts. It does not work! Don’t get me wrong, it was still deliciously vanilla-scented, but thin, really thin. I knew already that one shouldn’t let water anywhere near a candy melt, they are severely hydro (aqua?) phobic!!! But me, being me, had to try and figure a way round it. Can’t be done.

Makes 24 rolls.1. In a mixer bowl fitted with the dough hook,mix together the flour and yeast.2. Add the milk, sugar, eggs, butter, oil and salt, and knead for 5 mins until the dough is smooth, even and not sticky3. Cover and leave to double in size.4. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and divide into three.5. Roll out each piece to a quarter inch thick circle** and cut into 8 pizza style triangles.Roll up each triangle from the base to the tip and place on a parchment lined sheet pan (Make sure they are spread out with ample space in between)6. Cover and leave to double in size.7. Preheat the oven to 190 deg.C.8. Brush with egg wash and bake for about 15 mins until the pastries are golden and still soft to the touch.**Carine doesn’t actually state in the recipe how big to make the circle,so I just guessed!

Marks out of ten ? 9

Would I make them again? Definitely!

Would I do anything differently? No, the instructions were very clear.

Make the Cupcakes:1.Preheat the oven to 180 deg.C2.In a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment cream the butter, sugar and vanilla extract on medium speed. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.3. Sift together the flour, ,baking powder.baking soda and salt. With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients alternating with the buttermilk.Make 3 additions, starting and finishing with the flour.4 .Pour the batter into the cupcake pan lined with baking cups, filling the cups 3/4 of the way up.5. Bake for about 25 mins until golden.Cool thoroughly.

While cupcakes are cooling, make the frosting:6. In a bowl mix the cream cheese with the melted butter and vanilla.7 .Melt the white chocolate, add to the cheese mixture and mix until smooth.

Frost and serve:8. Spread a spoonful of frosting over each cupcake. Keep refrigerated and serve at room temperature.

Marks out of ten? 9.5

Would I make them again? You bet!

Would I do anything differently? I definitely wouldn’t use candy melts in the frosting! ( I need to start following instructions correctly don’t I?

Note: 3 days later, down to the last cupcake..and it’s still fresh and delicious!

I have a confession to make. I seriously coveted this book after seeing Ilana blogging about it. It sounded like just the kind of book I would love.Disaster though, it wasn’t even listed on Amazon, how could that be?My angel arrived in the shape of Francesca who kindly sent me the book, and I must say, I LOVE it.My ancestral island Cyprus, whilst being a Greek Island, is so Eastern, that it’s almost, but not quite, Middle-Eastern. To me, Cypriot food has more in common with Israeli food than it has in common with Greek mainland food, which in turn seems to have more in common with Eastern European countries.I love Cypriot cooking, the liberal use of cinnamon in sweet and savoury dishes, mastic, tomatoes, onions, lemons….I often laugh with my Mom, because everything we cook seems to start with ‘fry a chopped onion until darkly golden before adding a tin of chopped tomatoes’.So when I did finally lay my hands on this wonderful book thanks to Francesca, I seemed to instantly bond with it, it was just the book I’d been searching years for. And I mean years. Always buying Greek cook books and putting them down. THIS was the book I was meant to own.

1. Jewish pretzels – I made these last night, and boy were they GOOD. It seems to be the addition of full-fat milk powder which makes a huge difference. Oh, I also doubled the sugar in the recipe from 3 tablespoons to 6 – and they were JUST right.

2. Chicken and vegetable ptitim casserole – A delicious one-pot dish. When my store of ptitim runs out, I’m going to be making this with orzo, I don’t think the taste will be discernably different. The whole family enjoyed this dish, which is an achievement in itself.

3. lamb patties with tahini sauce. We have grown up eating tahini ‘salad/sauce’ (by that I mean tahini mixed with water, lemon juice, plenty of garlic, salt and topped with flat leaf parsley) So I was instantly drawn to this recipe. It was so easy to make, the only thing I’ve never tried before is actually baking the tahini sauce after it’s been made.

A big thank you to Francesca for this wonderful book.

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Nigella says…..

"I still believe the kitchen is not a place you escape from, but the place you escape to."

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